


Pitfall

by Silent_but_Artemis



Series: Achilles' Heel [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Everyone Apologizes, F/M, Friendly interactions, Hospitals, Hurt Steve Harrington, Season 1, mentions of the kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-17 22:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_but_Artemis/pseuds/Silent_but_Artemis
Summary: What if in Season 1 when Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy are at the Byers house Steve gets his foot stuck in the bear trap instead of the demogorgon?“Jump!”Such a simple action. Steve jumped every day at basketball practice. He could jump into pools, jump rope, even doing a running jump and go pretty far. Where was all that ability in that hallway? Where was it!?Steve’s legs pounded the floor of the hallway. His left leg landed on something different than the carpeted floor. Something metal.The sound of a loaded spring releasing registered in Steve’s head and then only pain followed.





	1. The Demogorgon

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea that came into my head while I was re-watching Season 1 in preparation for Season 3 coming out. This will be part of a series that will at least go through Season 2. 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys it!

Steve drove his BMW through Hawkins heading towards the Byer’s home. Guilt gnawed at him for what he had done at the movie theatre. He shouldn’t have said those things and he certainly shouldn’t have participated in any way to the spray painted message. 

_When did I become such a douche bag?_ He thought to himself. Steve knew this was a wake up call, a fork in the road if you will, where he had to ability to choose which path to take. Does he stay the way he is now, or does he take the steps to be better? 

As he pulled in next to Jonathan’s home, he already knew the decision was made for him. Steve was going to apologize for everything and probably beg for forgiveness. 

He had been in the wrong, and he was going to own up to it. 

Steve walked up to the door and started banging on it, loudly. 

“Jonathan?” He yelled through the door. 

“Are you there, man? It’s… it’s Steve!” 

_Come on, he’s gotta be here,_ he thought as he continued knocking. 

“Listen, I just want to talk!” _before I lose my nerve._

The door suddenly cracked open and Nancy’s beautiful face peaked through. 

“Steve listen to me-. 

“Hey Nancy, what-” 

“You need to leave.” 

“I’m not trying to start anything, okay?” And Steve meant it. 

“I don’t care about that. You need to leave.” Nancy tried again. 

“No, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay?” 

_Please just let me do this,_ he silently begged as he spoke. 

“I...I messed.... I messed up. Okay? Really. Please. I just want to make things right. Okay? Please. Please.” Steve begged aloud. 

His gaze shifted to Nancy’s hand and confusion followed. 

“Hey, what happened to your hand?” 

_That wasn’t like that earlier._

“Is that blood?” He asked concernedly as he gingerly grabbed her hand. 

Nancy pulled it away.

“Nothing. It was an accident,” she stuttered out. 

“Wait, what’s going on?” 

Now Steve had forgotten about his apology. His girlfriend was hurt, that mattered more right now. 

“Nothing.”

“Wait a sec, did he do this to you?” 

Jonathan was a dead man if he hurt her. Steve didn’t care that he came here to apologize to the guy, if he did anything to Nancy Steve was going to make him pay, and this time he wouldn’t lose. 

“No,” Nancy denied. 

Steve began pushing his way in. 

“Nancy let me in!” 

She tried to stop him, letting loose a litany of “No’s” but it did nothing to stop him from barging inside the house. Everything he saw as he walked in the house only added to his confusion. The lights and paint on the walls, the way Jonathan stood there looking so defensive, and most of all the nail bat sitting on the coffee table.

“What is… What the…” 

None of it made sense together. Jonathan quickly moved to try and make him leave as Nancy had requested. 

“You need to get out of here.” Jonathan bellowed. 

“Whoa. What is all-” Steve tried to form the words to all the questions he had in his head from looking at the living room. 

“Listen to me. I’m not asking you-” Jonathan began as Steve interjected his words with, “What is that smell?”

“I’m telling you to get out of here!” Jonathan was shoving against him now, trying to forcefully get Steve to acquiesce. 

“Is that.. Is that gasoline?” 

All of a sudden, the sound of a gun being cocked filled the room. Nancy was holding a pistol on him.

“Steve get out!” 

Fear permeated the air around Steve as he looked down the short barrel of the gun. 

“Wwwait,” he stuttered. “What? What is going on?” 

Nancy continued pointing the gun at him as she spoke.

“You have five seconds to get out of here.” 

“Wow, wow, wow what? Okay is this a joke?” Adrenaline coursed through him. Fight or flight they say, it only fueled the anxiety and fear he felt in the moment. 

“Stop. Put the gun down.” _Please God, put the gun down._

“I’m doing this for you.” And those words were even scarier than the gun being pointed at him. 

_Is she going to shoot me?_

“Nancy,” Jonathan whispered out as Steve kept saying “Hold on”. 

“Nancy.” Jonathan tried again.

The Christmas lights on the wall behind her started flickering. 

“What is this? What-” Steve just wanted to know if they were planning on murdering or if he was just stuck in some insane nightmare. 

Nancy started counting. 

“Three-”  
“No, no, no!” Steve yelled out as she got closer to shooting him. 

“Two.” 

Jonathan started shouting her name over the sounds of her and Steve’s voices. 

“Nancy! The lights.” And with those words she moved her focus from Steve to the lights, the gun falling to her side pointed only next to Steve. 

“It’s here,” Jonathan stated.

“Wait what’s here?” _Are they even hearing me?_

“Where is it?” Nancy asked.

“Where is what? Whoa!” Steve shouted as Nancy waved the gun around trying to aim at some invisible thing. 

“Easy with that!” _It’s like I’m not even here._

“Where is it?” Nancy asked again? 

“I don’t know, I don’t see it.” Jonathan replied. 

“Where is what?” _Just answer me._

“Hello! Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going-” 

And then everything Steve thought he knew about reality was proven wrong. The sound of walls crumbling filled the room. The ceiling was breaking open and some creature was coming out of the hole created. Nancy raised the gun and shot at it. It wasn’t working. 

“No!” Jonathan said as he ran to grab Nancy and pull her back. 

“Go! Go! Run! Go!” He shouted at her and Steve, as if they needed instructions to do that. 

Steve actually may have needed them. He wanted to run but his feet stayed where they were. It was probably the shock of everything. 

“Get out of here!” Jonathan yelled in his face as he dragged him towards the hallway. The creature was growling behind them. Fear coursed through his veins, and it made staring down a barrel seem so mundane in comparison. 

“Oh my God!” Steve kept saying, his brain stuck in a loop. He wasn’t ready for any of this. He had just wanted to apologize, not be killed by a monster from the beyond. So lost he was in his fear, he didn’t hear Jonathan’s command until it was too late. 

“Jump!” 

Such a simple action. Steve jumped every day at basketball practice. He could jump into pools, jump rope, even doing a running jump and go pretty far. Where was all that ability in that hallway? Where was it!? Steve’s legs pounded the floor of the hallway. His left leg landed on something different than the carpeted floor. Something metal. The sound of a loaded spring releasing registered in Steve’s head and then only pain followed. Metal teeth bit into his leg, clamping him into place. Pain ignited throughout his leg. Hot blood began flowing down on his ankle. Steve fell on the ground, his momentum halted so suddenly. 

“Ahhhhh!” He screamed out.  
Then the situation came rushing back to him. Here he was incapacitated on the floor in front of that thing. The creature’s growl was closer, it had to be basically right above him. Everything was blurring together. The agony from his leg was causing everything else to become muted. He could see Jonathan and Nancy yelling at him, but their words weren’t holding any meaning. 

Something dripped onto his neck, oddly cold and sticky. Steve was in too much pain to be afraid. The longer the teeth of the bear trap bit into his leg the more it throbbed. More of that liquid dripped onto his back. He came to the realization that he was going to die right here. 

His vision was tunneling, but he could see movement from Jonathan and Nancy. Jonathan moved forward with the bat and planted his feet right in front of Steve’s prone body. He swung the bat and Steve felt something else drip onto him. Jonathan swung again, yelling something. Steve heard the sound of something over the ringing in his ears. 

Steve tried to drag himself forward, maybe put some distance between the monster and him but the thing around his foot resisted and Steve almost blacked out when it shifted in his leg. Steve wished he would just pass out. Everything happened so quickly after that, probably due to Steve being in a world of pain and anguish. 

He thinks he saw Jonathan swing again and step over his body. Nancy moved as well, but she held something in her hand. Another loud growl broke through some of the ringing. Then heat and light spread across the hallway. And the growls turned into screeches of pain. Then nothing. Steve was trying to remember how to breathe as he hyperventilated some into the floor. Hands grabbed his face and he jerked. Nancy, it was Nancy’s hands touching him. 

She moved his face so it was looking at her. 

“Steve? Steve! Can you hear me?” It took a second but the words starting making sense again.  
“Yes,” Steve groaned out, praying Nancy would get to the point so he could pass out. 

“Look at me, Steve. We are going to take you to a hospital, but we have to move you. We can’t call an ambulance here.” 

That made sense. This place was a mess of fire damage and ruined ceilings. There would be too many questions. 

“‘Kay,” he bit out, trying to not let the sob that he felt building up in his throat leak through.

He doesn’t know why he bothered, because as soon as Jonathan finished removing the nails that kept the chain in place he tried to lift Steve up from the ground, jostling the hurt leg in the process. Stabbing pain shot through his leg and he let loose the sob. Tears started trickling down his face.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Jonathan kept up a stream of apologies and he and Nancy eventually had Steve in position, his arms hanging over their shoulders and his right leg holding him up some. The trip to the car was the hardest thing Steve had ever done. Sweat dripped down his face mixing in with his tears as each step made his leg ache. It was sort of a hop-step kind of process, and Steve knew he was leaving quite a trail of blood behind them. Nancy and Jonathan were talking to each other and to him as they walked, but with the renewed stress on his leg, Steve was only able to really focus on breathing and moving forward. 

_Just one more step, come on just one more step,_ Steve tried to encourage himself. Even the voice in his head sounded desperate, like it knew that if he didn’t make it to the car he was going to bleed out here. 

Once they got to the car and opened the back door, Jonathan took over and maneuvered Steve to be sitting on the seat. He then moved to help Steve lay down. Steve’s contribution to this was him basically collapsing across the seats. . While it jarred his leg, he felt like his pain level was maxed out so a little extra was a small addition. 

The ringing was back and louder in his ears. He felt the car start up and begin moving.

 _You’re going to make it, just breathe,_ Steve told himself. He was used to self-encouragement. He did it all the time in basketball games right before free-throws or when he was about to try for a three-pointer. It always seemed to help a little bit. 

But this wasn’t anything like basketball, or anything else he had ever done really. Suddenly Nancy was shaking him and saying his name. 

“Steve!” 

“Wha?” He said. Steve was actually proud of himself for being able to answer at all. 

“How are you doing?” She asked, concern written all over her face as she looked back at him from the front passenger seat. 

_Well let’s see Nancy, we just fought some kind of monster and I somehow got a bear trap stuck to my leg in the process,_ he thought bitterly. 

“Just peachy,” he whispered out. She didn’t need him to vent to her right now and he also didn’t have the energy to yell. She smiled softly at him, but the concern remained in her eyes. 

“Nancy, we need a story to tell the hospital,” Jonathan said. They must not have been far from arriving. 

“Uh right. Um, we could say… say that we were all out hunting, yeah? And Steve accidentally stepped in a bear trap?” She said it all so questioningly, like there was any good story as to why someone had a bear trap attached to their leg. 

“That sounds believable enough.” Jonathan commented back. 

Steve couldn’t care less, he didn’t think they would ask him too many questions at the hospital, they would be too busy amputating his leg. He may have muttered out the last part because Nancy quickly tried to assure him that they wouldn’t amputate his leg. That was probably when the blood loss got to him and his adrenaline wore off because Steve devolved into hysterics. His breaths were coming faster and faster. 

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, nothing was making sense. The panic from everything set in. 

“Oh my God. That thing… My leg’s gonna get chopped off… No more basketball… No more leg…” He was going to be a one legged highschooler. No girl would want to date that. 

Sobs wracked his body as he suffered through the panic attack in front of Nancy and Jonathan. Nancy was carding her hand through his hair as she whispered to him. 

“Steve we’re almost there, it’s going to be okay. You need to calm down. Just breathe Steve, slowly. We are almost there, they’re going to fix you right up- Jonathan can you go any faster?” 

Steve felt the car jolt and go a little faster, but the world was fading quickly around him. The ringing turned into a roar in his ears and his peripheral vision was being taken over by darkness. 

Finally, Steve passed out.


	2. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finishing up this installment of the Achilles' Heel Series. This chapter is all about the initial recovery for Steve and some apologies that needed to happen.

_ Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep… _

That was the first sound Steve heard as awareness came back to him. He felt warm and comfortable, almost floaty. He could tell he was lying down on something. 

Trying to relax back into oblivion, lulled by the constant beeping noise, Steve was hit with the feeling that he had forgotten an important piece of information. He shifted slightly in the bed and a muted twinge of pain went through his left leg, and with it came the memories. 

Panic flowed through him once more and his eyes shot open. The beeping increased in cadence as Steve started to hyperventilate. 

“Nancy!? Jonathan?” He shouted out, surprised at the hoarseness of his voice as he scanned the room to find it empty. 

“Anyone? Hello?” 

Steve needed to see someone, anyone really. He needed human contact, someone to reassure him that this was all a dream, a horrible nightmare.

_ What if the monster got them? What if I’m the only one left?  _

In hindsight Steve should’ve known that was the irrational panic talking, only wanting to fuel his anxieties more, but at the time it felt like the only truth he could accept.

Suddenly the room was a flurry of activity as two nurses came rushing in. One ran directly to his side and began trying to calm him down, while the other moved to help raise the bed so that he would be sitting up. 

“Mr. Harrington - Steve, you’re going to be alright. You just need to breathe with me honey, we’re going to get your breathing back to normal, do you think you can do that?” She said it so kindly. 

Steve was able to nod at her through the panic. All he had to do was breathe, that couldn’t be too hard, right?

She started rubbing his back in small circles as she led him with her breathing, a nice steady in and out. Luckily they were able to get his breathing back under control. 

The tendrils of panic finally let go of him and Steve slumped back in exhaustion. The kind nurse smiled at him and told him that he did a good job of matching her breathing. 

Steve was pretty sure she was just saying that to try and cheer him up. The other nurse was checking over his chart and getting a read-out from his heart monitor. The two nurses began conversing in hushed tones.

They were probably talking about him freaking out, or they could be talking about their next shift, who knows. Steve was feeling better just having them in the same room as him, they could be talking about how he was the ugliest guy in the world and he would still yearn for at least one of them to be there with him. 

The kind nurse led the other out the door before coming to stand at the foot of his hospital bed. 

“Hi Steve, my name is Claudia Henderson, I’m one of the nurses who’s been monitoring you. Dr. Wilkins is on his way over here to explain everything to you sweetie, but if you would prefer I can give you a brief rundown before he gets here?” Nurse Henderson said with a mix of professionalism and concern. It took him a second to process everything she said, clearly they had him on some strong painkillers. Getting the news on his leg now or later didn’t change the prognosis, so Steve opted for now. 

Claudia nodded before picking up his chart and going through the information. 

“You were brought in last night with a bear trap clamped to your left leg. They were able to get the trap off with no issues. Your tibia was broken, which it’s already been set sweetie so you don’t need to worry about that, and there is some muscle and tendon damage to your lower leg and ankle area.” She paused to glance at him, gauging if he was processing everything she was saying. 

“Are they gonna have to amputate it?” The words came out of Steve’s mouth fast and somewhat slurred. 

Claudia’s face broke out into an understanding soft smile.

“No sweetie, your leg is going to be just fine. It might take some time, but you’ll be back on your two feet in no time.” 

That was when Dr. Wilkins waltzed into the room. 

“Hey there Mr. Harrington, I see Nurse Henderson filled you in on the leg.”    
Steve nodded, shifting his focus from Claudia to the doctor. He felt the exhaustion from the panic attack try to drag him back to sleep. 

“I must say son, I’ve seen a lot of things in this hospital, but you’re my first bear trap victim,” he said it like it was some big joke, but the humor helped relax Steve some. 

“We had to get some firemen in here to help remove the bear trap from your foot, but after that everything was simple enough. We got your bone aligned and have splinted the leg. We can’t stitch the puncture wounds yet, they need to drain some so that you don’t get an infection, but in a couple of days we will probably stitch those up so you don’t have too many scars from this experience. Do you have any questions son?”

It was a lot of information to take in. He probably missed some of the things the doctor said, but since he heard no mention of amputation, Steve was feeling okay with missing some information. There was one thing he wanted to know before he went back to sleep.

“When do I get to leave?” He didn’t want to stay in the hospital too long, his parents might get upset with him for it. 

“Within a day or two, barring no complications, now how about you take a little nap and we can discuss anything else when you wake back up?” Dr. Wilkins must have noticed the way Steve’s eyes kept drooping. 

Blinking at the man in a way Steve hoped conveyed thankfulness Steve then closed his eyes completely and fell into a deep sleep. 

### 

A soft voice woke him the next time. It was Nancy’s voice, that Steve was certain of. He slowly opened his eyes to find her sitting by his bed reading a book aloud, quietly. 

“Steve!” She said, a surprised expression on her face. 

“Nance,” Steve tried, the name only coming out slightly garbled. 

“How are you feeling? We were really worried about you.” 

“We?” 

“Yes, Jonathan is here too. He just left to get us some coffee.” 

_ Oh,  _ he thought.  _ Jonathan is here too, great.  _

Nancy continued talking. “I guess we won’t be going on any hunting trips soon with how your leg is.” 

“What?” 

“You know, the bear trap you stepped in while we were  _ hunting. _ ” She placed a lot of emphasis on that word. 

_ The cover story,  _ his brain supplied as the confusion about why she kept talking about hunting lifted. 

“Oh yeah, no more hunting for me. No sirree.” They must have him on the good stuff, because that was not how he talked usually. 

Whatever the case Nancy seemed satisfied with his words and she visibly relaxed. The door to the room opened and Jonathan walked in with two steaming cups of coffee.

“You’re awake!” 

_ I’m pretty sure he only ever states the obvious,  _ Steve thought humorously. He may have chuckled a little at the thought judging by the worried and puzzled looks the two were giving him. Not knowing a better way to respond he chose to just smile back at them. 

“I was just telling Steve here that we won’t take him on anymore hunting trips,” Nancy said, trying to create some illusion of conversation. 

This whole situation felt like a giant ball of awkwardness. Steve couldn’t tell if that made him want to laugh or cry. 

Jonathan glanced behind him towards the door before nodding at Nancy’s statement. 

“Yeah, if you got stuck in another bear trap they might have to amputate the other leg.” Jonathan’s attempt at humor would have been greatly appreciated when all of Steve’s faculties were working. As it was now, the joke did not go over well. 

Steve’s eyes widened and he again felt the whisper of fear bump his heartrate up a little. His gaze flickered down to his left leg in confusion, afraid that he had been imagining it there this whole time. 

“Whoa whoa Steve, calm down. It was a joke, they didn’t amputate.” Nancy said quickly, shooting a glare at Jonathan. 

“Sorry man, they said you woke up earlier and they explained everything to you.” Jonathan at least had the decency to look a little guilty. 

“Oh, ha ha very funny,” Steve said through gritted teeth as he willed his body to relax. 

The tension in the room ramped up a degree. It put him on edge, which he hated. He was already tired enough, and there was a slight throbbing coming from his leg that no amount of morphine would block out. It was all giving him a headache. 

“We actually wanted to apologize about how everything went down...while we were hunting.” Nancy whispered as Jonathan took a seat in a chair next to hers. 

“Everything was so crazy, I shouldn’t have pointed the gun at you. I’m sorry.” Nancy gave him that full-on doe-eyed look that made her look all kinds of innocent. He would always fall for that look probably. 

“Yeah man, we just didn’t want you to, you know, get involved with the..uh...thing we were hunting,” Jonathan added. 

Even with the drugs affecting his perceptions and thoughts, Steve could tell they truly meant their words. And to be fair, now that he knew what they had been trying to keep him from, trying to protect him from, he could understand a little of why they reacted the way they did. 

“Okay,” Steve replied, proud that he was keeping up with the conversation and its implications so well. 

“That’s all you have to say?” Nancy must have been expecting him to go off on them or something. 

“Yeah.”  _ It’s that simple Nancy, just leave it,  _ and for once Nancy actually did drop it. There was no puzzle to solve, Steve was being serious. He didn’t have it in him to care about all of that, he had bigger things to worry about. 

“Is it still out there?” He asked, trying to not sound as afraid as he really was about the creature. 

“No, its gone. We can’t really explain right now, but all you need to know is that it’s gone.” Nancy assured him. 

“Thank God,” he said, feeling the last of his energy sap away. His eyelids were becoming heavier and he struggled to keep them open and focused on his visitors. 

Nancy was still speaking but her words faded away with the rest of the world as Steve fell back to sleep. 

###

He apparently slept off and on throughout that whole first 24 hours of being in the hospital. The doctor had informed him that his parents, through some trying, had finally been reached and wouldn’t be home for another week. He could still go home within a day so long as he had a ride and someone to keep an eye on him since he would be on some heavy duty painkillers. 

Today, he was supposed to leave. He had easily blackmailed Nancy into driving him home from the hospital, and he may have lied and said his aunt was coming to stay with him until his parents got home. He just wanted to leave this place so he could come to terms with everything that had happened in the sanctity of his own home.

Nancy would be arriving within the hour and he could only pray that the trip to her car would be less painful than the last time he had to get in a car with this injury. 

He was sitting up on the side of the bed with his feet dangling off. Nurse Henderson had helped him get dressed earlier, much to his embarrassment, but at least he was wearing more than just an airy hospital gown. 

Steve was lost in his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door. 

_ Nancy shouldn’t be here yet,  _ he thought as he told the person to come in. 

It was Chief Hopper. Steve quickly ran through all the illegal things he had done recently that would have led the Chief to come to arrest him while he was still in the hospital. 

“Hey kid, heard you were fully awake today.” The man said, still not fully stepping into the room. 

“Uh, yeah, I can actually think today.”

Hopper chuckled at that before his expression shifted to one more serious. He glanced down the hallway some before closing and leaning up against the door, acting as a barrier from anyone coming in the room. 

“So I heard you saw it, the creature.” 

“What? No, no I was hunting and I stepped in a bear trap.” Steve tried to school his features and exude truthfulness and virtue to the Chief. Maybe he would believe him. 

“I already know all about it kid, you don’t have to keep spewing that hunting crap. I’ve already talked to your friends about it. You know, Nancy and Jonathan.” Hopper seemed amused at this poor attempt at lying. 

“Oh, then yeah I saw it.” Maybe Steve shouldn’t have just believed Hopper right off the bat, but it was too late now. 

“And you’re not going to tell anyone about it, right?” Hopper was giving him this look now, the one he probably gave criminals he already had pegged. 

“Of course not, who would believe me anyway?” Steve said, a ghost of a smile quirking on his lips. 

“Good. I had to be sure before I told you anything else. Nancy said you would probably want to know what all had happened and to warn you a little.” 

Steve didn’t like the sound of that.  _ Warn me about what?  _

“So to give you the simple version, that thing you saw was from a different dimension, what the kids are calling a demogorgon.” 

The Chief went on to explain what all had gone down while Steve was in the hospital. He learned that only a small group of people knew about what happened, and that soon the government was going to make them sign some papers saying they could tell no one about what had truly transpired. 

“I managed to get them to hold off from badgering you while you were still in the hospital, but they will more than likely stop by your house soon.” 

Some of the harder pieces of the story to swallow were those about the real reason Will Byers went missing and of the fate of Barb. His heart clenched in an uncomfortable way when he learned that more than likely she was taken while at his house, since that was the last place she was seen. Barb was dead. 

He hadn’t known her at all really, but that didn’t mean he had wanted her to die at his house while he was up in his bedroom with Nancy. 

Once the tale was finished, the Chief left him to mull over everything, offering a small amount of well wishes for a speedy recovery before heading out the door. 

Not long after Nancy came in with a nurse to wheel him out of the hospital. Apparently getting Nancy to drive him home meant getting Jonathan to drive him home while Nancy rode on the back seat with him. The ride was mostly quiet, but Steve knew now was the time to broach the subject. 

“So I never got to actually got to apologize that night. That was why I came to your house, Jonathan, in the first place. I’m sorry about everything I said and I shouldn’t of done those things.”    
Nancy glanced to where Jonathan sat driving and then back to Steve. She smiled. “Okay.” 

_ What?  _

“Yeah, okay.” Jonathan also said, sounding a little amused. 

“Just ‘okay’?” Steve knew they were doing it to remind him of his own easy forgiveness of their transgressions, but theirs were not quite as bad as his. 

“Yes Steve, it’s okay. I think we all did some wrong things but we paid for them. I mean, you got your leg stuck in a bear trap because of us. I think that more than pays for the spray paint and camera,” Nancy said, laughing some at the end. Her eyes, though, shone with uneasiness, afraid he wouldn’t find the joke  _ that  _ funny. 

“Woah woah woah, so you’re saying that almost losing my leg was penance for a camera and some graffiti that I didn’t even do? That doesn’t sound fair at all.” Steve’s made a pouting face while Jonathan let loose the first real laugh Steve had ever heard from him. 

“You’re right, it should’ve been way worse,” Jonathan said. 

Then they were all laughing, laughing about the danger they had faced and survived. Laughing about the fact that they had fought a real monster, that Steve couldn’t even jump over a small bear trap on the floor, and all the other crazy things that had happened. It was cathartic for all of them and gave them a feeling of companionship. 

_ Maybe this is what having real friends feels like,  _ he thought as they continued the trip to his house. 

Nancy and Jonathan ended up staying with him most of the time until his parents came home. It was sorta awkward at first but quickly became, funnily enough, okay. Nancy and Steve got back together somewhere in there too, and life returned to something close to normal. Maybe Hawkins would recover from these supernatural events. Maybe everything would be nice and simple from now on. 

Or maybe, just maybe, this was the beginning for Hawkins. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! This story is meant to be a kind of appetizer for the meaty story(s) that follow in this Series. If you thought there wasn't enough depth to this, or that it was shy of some details then that's good because I kind of wanted it to be like that.   
> I am currently writing the sequel with about 4k words finished. I won't start posting until it is pretty much done. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the ending! Thanks for reading. Until next time :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Please leave some feedback so I can know where to improve in my writing! 
> 
> Chapter 2 should be up in a couple of days.


End file.
